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Open source in government: A delusional cheer from the Greens
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Comments (4)
Riddled with holes and misinformed opinion.
I sent them this letter-to-editor
Technology commentator strikes out completely
Quite aside from his careful filtering of the available data, Francis Till seems to have fallen completely for Microsoft's expensive propaganda. Examples are legion; it would take an entire article to respond even briefly, but let me select a simple one to illustrate: standard document formats.
MS Office 12 "XML" files are not open, they're patent-encumbered. They are also not XML and not standard. Three strikes, they're out.
A patent-encumbered standard is analogous to building an imposing fortress across a pass, then swinging the gates wide and declaring the pass "open". Everyone sidling nervously through the sniggering gate guards knows well that it only remains "open" at your pleasure.
The OpenDocument standard, on the other hand, is not patent encumbered at all, is a real standard (and headed for ISO certification), and really is XML from start to finish. Several different working implementations of the standards are available for perusal and Free use.
MS Office "XML" files include binary data, a clear violation of both the XML standards and their obvious intent. The only exception to this is the stripped-down version, which discards most serious formatting, making it useless for document storage or interchange. Microsoft also owns enough associated structure to prevent independent implementation.
Nothing outside Microsoft's own product line deals with either variant, and for good reason.
The Review article's naivety follows a similar pattern throughout.
Quite aside from his careful filtering of the available data, Francis Till seems to have fallen completely for Microsoft's expensive propaganda. Examples are legion; it would take an entire article to respond even briefly, but let me select a simple one to illustrate: standard document formats.
MS Office 12 "XML" files are not open, they're patent-encumbered. They are also not XML and not standard. Three strikes, they're out.
A patent-encumbered standard is analogous to building an imposing fortress across a pass, then swinging the gates wide and declaring the pass "open". Everyone sidling nervously through the sniggering gate guards knows well that it only remains "open" at your pleasure.
The OpenDocument standard, on the other hand, is not patent encumbered at all, is a real standard (and headed for ISO certification), and really is XML from start to finish. Several different working implementations of the standards are available for perusal and Free use.
MS Office "XML" files include binary data, a clear violation of both the XML standards and their obvious intent. The only exception to this is the stripped-down version, which discards most serious formatting, making it useless for document storage or interchange. Microsoft also owns enough associated structure to prevent independent implementation.
Nothing outside Microsoft's own product line deals with either variant, and for good reason.
The Review article's naivety follows a similar pattern throughout.
Anon -
Do the Microsoft files really contain honst-to-gosh, not base64-encoded, binary data?
I'm impressed. I ddin't think you could get such a beast to parse.
Do the Microsoft files really contain honst-to-gosh, not base64-encoded, binary data?
I'm impressed. I ddin't think you could get such a beast to parse.
Couldn't believe the amount of crap in this article...
....it just didn't stop - I was amazed.
The NBR is quite a well respected publication here in New Zealand (at least I thought so).
So much misinformation and ridiculousness in one place - impressive!
The NBR is quite a well respected publication here in New Zealand (at least I thought so).
So much misinformation and ridiculousness in one place - impressive!
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"... The Linux component of the operating system sector is, indeed, growing -- but only in a limited way and in back-end operations where the code being used is often highly modified and resembles out-of-box solutions in much the way reformed alcoholics ... " to "... failing to note that Novell is a company offering proprietary versions of OSS."
Both comments are suggestively negative if not outright untrue. Most of this article looks like "trash talking" rather than information.
I mean.. how much of an install base of old Unix systems does China have.. from reading only this article I'd assume it to be huge. From everything else I've read I wasn't even aware there were legacy Unix installs in China!